#1

The weather had already started to turn colder, the beginning of August had came into the city of Westopolis, the leaves turning into beautiful shades of yellow, orange and red. Silver really enjoyed this time of the year, it was such a beautiful time of the year.

The wonder of seasons and bright blue sky would never get old for him, those were two of the things he had found to be his favorite after he and the others had decided it probably wasn't wise for them to send Silver back to the future after they destroyed Iblis, since his destruction would cause the future to be different and the presence of Silver might be erased completely.

The white hedgehog was walking down a park path that was still a little wet from last night's rain with a bouquet in his left hand, bouquet of purple lilies.

His gaze was trailing the path as he was walking, giving the water puddles brief glances as he walked by them. Once he reached his destination, he stoppedand stared down at one of those water puddles, studying the reflection.

The figure in the puddle wasn't smiling, in fact it seemed quite miserable. Why? That figure had no reason to be sad, but it felt powerless and lonely.

There was no other figures around the white figure in the reflection, only the gray-ish sky on the background and couple peaks of trees. The figure in the reflection sighed

and corrected a cyan colored scarf that it had wrapped around the neck.

Slowly Silver lifted his gaze up from the water puddle and looked up at the statue in front of him, which was standing on a white pedestal, the stone appealed darker than it usually was, the rock of the sculpture also being still wet of the rain from last night, but still the cat figure stood up proudly and in dignity.

A small smile formed to Silver's face when he red the plate that was attached to the pedestal:

Blaze The Cat,
In Honor Of Defeating Iblis By Sacrificing Herself For The Good Of Others

The seven spiked hedgehog stared up to the statue and opened his mouth to speak,

"Hi Blaze... Here I am again, I hope you're still doing well up there… I brought you some flowers, lilies this time, I hope you like them".

He took an old bouquet of dry flowers to his hand and replaced them with the new ones right next to the statue's feet. Silver took his time to walk up to a trash bin near by to drop off the old flowers and walk back up to the statue quietly observing it after speaking again,

"It has been 4 years since we destroyed Iblis… As I have told you before we're all doing great, of course there are some conflicts at times but we can handle them, since it's mostly arguing between certain people..."

"What else I haven't updated you on yet...Oh yeah! I finally ended up moving out from the household of those two, Sonic and Shadow, since I'm finally 18 now and I was pretty much done with them babying me all the time, even Tails!. It was nice of them to let me stay in the quest room, but now I have a tiny apartment on the edge of the town and I enjoy my time a lot more, I have a little bit more room for myself and also time to figure out what I'm gonna do from now on".

Silver's mood dropped, "I hope you could be here with me… I really miss you Blaze, I have said it countless times, but I still do and I probably will keep saying it every time I visit".

He always felt so depressed when he started to speak about this subject, this time he had decided not to cry, he promised Blaze that he would get rid of the stupid habit to cry every time.

"...You were so stubborn back then… You sacrificed yourself to save the rest of us… Why wouldn't the crystals accept me to be the vessel? Why did it had to be you?"

Silver felt his eyes get watery. He knew Blaze would now be telling him that she had the soul of fire but he didn't, that's why. He was struggling to keep the tears in.

"Still, I feel bad since I couldn't do anyth- ah screw this"

He cursed when he felt a tear start running down his cheek and he wiped it away to his sleeve.

"Guess I'm not getting rid of the crying, haha. Don't you dare to laugh though!" ,Silver said and imagined the ringing of Blazes laugh in his ears.

He looked up to the statue again.

"...I know you would also tell me not to speak to statues and make a total fool of myself, but here I am talking to a statue, crying and yelling while doing so, so I guess it can't be helped", He let out a small chuckle again.

"I will be back probably in couple weeks, bye Blaze, next time I'm not gonna cry!" , with that he turned around and started walking, a small smile on his face.

That was also one of the things he had promised to Blaze, to always leave wearing a smile on his face. Blaze was and still would be his closest friend. Silver didn't mind how much time he had spent talking to the statue, it made him feel good about himself to keep her memory alive.

The park where Blaze's statue was located was in a park that had a name "Gardens of the Heroes", it was full of beautiful flower set-ups, benches and water fountains, beautiful little park even that right now it was little depressing because of the rain of the latest days and the gray sky was making it no better.

The white hedgehog knew that he would probably end up having his statue in the park too, after he would be gone for good, which he hoped would not to be in the near future. He wouldn't be the only one though, he knew the whole gang would get a spot in the park, Sonic probably getting the mightiest statue into the middle of the park, of course.

Silver stopped by a grocery store on his way back home to pick up urgent eatables. When he stepped out from the store he quickly noticed it had started to rain pretty heavily. 'Of course', he sighed in annoyance and leaned against the wall next to the doors to keep himself sheltered from the rain. He wished the rain would calm down soon, so he wouldn't need to walk home in the pouring rain. The young hedgehog liked rain, but he really didn't have a huge desire to get his quills wet.

Staring at the dark sky and completely lost in his thoughts again the white hedgehog jumped when suddenly he heard a noise from an alley about 10 feet on his left.

'Probably one of those streetcats going through the trash bins again', Silver thought and heard something to fall over, or that's what it sounded like.

Unexpectedly a tin can rolled out from the alley, Silver followed it with his gaze, listening to the rustling sound it made while it was rolling slowly on the stone street. He raised his gaze from the can when he heard cats hissing and meowing, suddenly three skinny cats bust it from behind the corner.

'well that's weird. What ever scared those cats', he stood there confused.

He heard something else to fall over, probably another trash bin. Now he knew for sure it couldn't be a another cat and his curiousness was starting to take over. He wanted to know what or who was making all that noise. He gave a glance around to see if there was someone around, but he didn't see anyone in the rain.

Silver took carefully a step towards the other street. He didn't know should he be doing this, but then again who knows, it might Eggman's newest invention to make robots get their gasoline from... trash? He would be able to destroy the thing before it would become a problem, so it's not like he would lose anything from checking it out. Yeah he wouldn't lose anything from just checking.

The white hedgehog reached the corner, he took a deep breath, pulled his top quills back and peeked to the side street. He saw absolutely nothing alarming on the dark walkway apart from the four trash bins that were laying on their side. Since he didn't see anyone he let go of his quills, which bounced back to their original place immediately. He took a step towards the trash bins.

'oh great I missed it, what ever it was', he rolled his eyes.

Now he was standing in the rain for nothing, what a bummer. What he didn't expect was a another crash behind one of the trash bins still standing, it made him jump into the air and almost let out a yelp.

There it was, in the shadows, the thing that had been making the noise, which appeared in a form of a person. Silver was staring at the back of that person, the stranger had not noticed the white one standing there. It seemed like the person had a struggle to stand on their feet? It was taking support from the trash bin with it's arms. So the person had made those trash bins to fall over, because he was leaning on them trying to get up?

The stranger seemed to be pitch black in the dark alley, lighter stripes on top of it's quills. Quills? Wait that meant the stranger was a hedgehog too. Silver smiled a bit, he knew only two other hedgehogs apart from himself, so he wouldn't have that many options to guess from, thought this individual's essence didn't feel like either one of them, it came across a lot...colder.

Silver still decided to go with his hunch of who this person was,

"Hey Shadow, what are you doing here? I thought you had plans with Sonic and Tails today?", Silver called out at the familiar form and started to walk towards the dark hedgehog.

The figure in front of him flinched, well obviously since the darker one hadn't even realised Silver had been there in the first place. But what followed caused the to grocery bag drop to the pavement he had in his hand.

The figure in front of him started to turn it's head around slowly, and what Silver noticed first as the head of the darker one turned to look at him, was the bright green eyes, that had only a vertical slit pupil in the middle, eyes that made you feel like they sucked everything that has ever existed into eternal darkness. Silver's eyes went wide, this wasn't Shadow, or anyone who he considered as an ally.

What was even more frightening was that he did know this person or you could say creature from years back. Silver verified his conclusion by giving a quick glance down to the area where a mouth would be, but the area was completely solid, the mouth missing from it's place. He glanced at the stripes in the quills, those weren't blood red as they were supposed to be, instead they were pale powder blue. The white one noticed also the small dark region of fluid that definitely was not water on the figures feet. The young hedgehog was assured he knew this person.

"M-Me-Mephiles...", Silver was able to stutter out and stare at the individual who had a death grip of the trash bin.

The dark one turned inconveniently around to face the young one, "Silver the Hedgehog, you're probably the last person I expected to meet".

Mephiles's cold stare was making Silver tremble, the yellow eyed wrapped his arms around himself, it had suddenly gotten freezing cold, his skin underneath his fur was on goosebumps.

"H-How?", Silver stuttered quietly, trying to clarify the overwhelming situation to himself.

"Y-You're supposed to be dead….We destroyed Iblis, Blaze-"

"you destroyed Iblis, yes, but I managed to separate myself from it"

Silver's eyes went wide. He noticed the darker one being really exhausted. His good nature was making him concerned about the other, enemy or not.

"Are you ok?", he asked the other.

"Yes", came the answer bluntly.

Silver wouldn't believe him, he could tell from the shaking of Mephiles's legs that they wouldn't carry him for long,

"You can sit down if you feel like you need to", he saw suspicion in the green eyes,

"I wasn't planning on fighting you", Silver added so the other one would relax himself for a bit.

Mephiles let himself slide slowly down against the bin, until he was sitting on the pavement. The two stared at each other quietly for awhile, trying to figure out each others thoughts. The only sound heard was the rain hitting the stone street.

Silver was still shivering, not because he was scared, but because the rain was getting underneath his fur to his skin. He really wanted to get away from the rain. He could feel frigid all the way to his toes, however he managed to keep his head on topic, which was to figure out what Mephiles was plotting.

"So why are you here Mephiles? What do you want from this dimension?".

Mephiles stared at the white hedgehog and chuckled, "Oh yeah you're the naive one… You're not gonna believe me even if I told you".

"Told me what?", Silver asked right away, lifting his left eyebrow slightly.

"That I'm not looking for anything, I do not have a purpose to be here, it's just a coincidence".

Mephiles was right, the young hedgehog wouldn't believe that. But Mephiles saying it that way, made Silver think about it again. He took his time to digest it. The dark hedgehog had no trouble with it, since he was pretty patient by nature.

"...It really does smell kinda fishy to me…Why here of all the places?", the white one asked puzzled.

The green eyes closed slowly and a deep sigh was let out,

"I have been moving around the main island as dark matter for four full years, because after separating myself from Iblis I've been recovering technically from dying once. My plan was to leave the main island as fast as I could, but I have hardly any of my abilities that I used to have, including materializing, flying, time travelling and so on. This is the first time I have been able to materialize myself completely... all my other abilities are still missing.", the mouthless answered, opening his eyes after finishing his explanation.

The yellow eyed hedgehog was doubtful, he really thought there was something wrong with Mephiles just happening to materialize himself in Westopolis, it still wasn't in the capital of the main island, but it wasn't far from here. He still needed to make sure he had got this whole thing right,

"And you insist that you being here is just a coincidence?"

"Yes", The darker one sighed yet again.

The seven spiked hedgehog didn't know what to think about the situation, a moment ago he was convinced that Mephiles was lying to him and he would be stupid enough to believe, since it had happened before. Mephiles had totally fooled him almost to slay Sonic, he definitely didn't want that to happen again. Still maybe this time the dark one was speaking the truth.

Silver wanted to get done with this conflict, his toes would go numb any second now, his quills declining more and more because of the weight of water in them. But he couldn't leave from the situation just yet, he needed to figure out what was up with Mephiles before then.

"What are you planning on doing? ...Or where are you gonna go from here?".

The figure sitting against the trash bin just shrugged. Silver raised both of his eyebrows.

"You can't just be wandering around, you know that right? People will get suspicious… And there are people living here who recognize you."

"That's just something I have to deal with, wouldn't be the first time for me to be hiding people".

Silver was kind of taken aback, Mephiles was thought to be a monster, which he was yes, but the fact that he was quite submissive to accept his conditions made him feel bad. Mephiles seemed harmless at least for now and if he runs to someone else apart from Silver there would be trouble for him.

"Even the cops might get suspicious… You might attack them to defend yourself and then we would have Sonic and the whole crew included, oh god that just doesn't work at all, you need a place to be."

"You have better ideas then?"

The good news was that the white one had came up with an idea, but the bad thing was that he knew it wouldn't end up well, far from it. He was probably insane to even think about it, but he really felt bad for the other and his good nature was telling him that he had to help.

"You could… Stay at my apartment until you're recovered, since right now you're not even able to stand up yourself and you would have a plan what you're gonna do...".

Since he didn't get an answer, he really thought it was not a good idea of any kind. Mephiles was quietly staring at him, eyes full of uncertainty and the previous suspicion had returned.

"I thought I was the enemy", he finally uttered calmly.

"Well technically you are, but you're no harm for me right now and me providing this option to you should give you the idea I'm not planning on fighting you either...", Silver answered and brushed one of his wet quills away from his face, breaking the eye contact with the other hedgehog temporarily.

"Seems like the years haven't done nothing to you", the dark one chuckled.

"What do you mean by that?", Silver demanded to know and crossed his arms.

The darker one chuckled, "You're making friends with the enemy, thinking that I'm probably not bad anymore? "

"I have no intentions to cause harm to anyone for now, but my base feature is bad and you should know that Silver".

The young hedgehog stared at the street, he knew all this was stupid, but if he was able to help Mephiles to get back on his feet (quite literally), he desired to do so. Maybe he would get other thoughts when Mephiles would get powerful again and destroy things around him, but for now he wanted to help. Silver knew what it was to have absolutely nothing and be completely alone in a new place.

The dark green eyes studied the snow white figure in front of them,

"Therefore are you still sure you're willing to open your door for me?".

"I think so. No wait- yes! Yes I'm sure.".

"You probably want to make some agreements about it I'm assuming?",

Mephiles let go of the trash bin and transformed himself to dark matter all the way to his neck. Silver stared at the puddle where only Mephiles's head was peaking out, but he snapped out of his thought pretty quickly,

"Well as long as we're not gonna wreck my apartment and you're fine with sleeping on the couch, I think we're good".

He honestly couldn't come up with anything else he would need from the other, since Silver was the one who wanted to help, he couldn't ask for anything.

"Very well, I'm not picky where I sleep and since either one of us wants to fight, your apartment will be safe.", answered the head in the puddle. Silver just nodded as an answer, picking up his groceries from the ground, the plastic bag full of water.

"You need help with walking or are you just gonna follow me like that?", he asked looking at the head in the liquid.

"I'm not gonna force walking today".

"Right, well it's not that far and since we're both already soaking wet so let's just go".

CHAP 1 END

Heyya!

Phew that was the first chapter, I hoped you guys liked it and ALL KIND of feedback is welcome!